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Leo Babauta’s brilliant little bo...
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Attempt to create only one significant work a year. Break that into smaller projects, and every day, find three tasks to accomplish t...
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Anxiety Is Practicing Failure in Advance Anxiety is needless and imaginary. It’s fear about fear, fear that means nothing.
There’s not a lot of genuine fear here in our world, so when it appears, it’s worth noting.
The problem with reassurance is that it creates a cycle that never ends. Reassure me about one issue and you can bet I’ll find something else to worry about.
“People Will Laugh at Me”
My favorite pastime when traveling is watching people watching.
The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking, or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint. When we sprint, all the internal dialogue falls away and we focus on going as fast as we possibly can.
Robert Ringer wrote Looking Out for Number One, one of the most damaging business books I’ve ever read. His salute to selfishness was a product of its time, and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
The Protestant Reformation permitted the explosion of commerce that led to the world we live in now.
Respect is the gift you can offer in return.
the ability to see things as they truly are. A Buddhist might call this prajna. A life without attachment and stress can give you the freedom to see things as they are and call them as you see them.
Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.
Find a boss who can’t live without a linchpin. Find a boss who adequately values your scarcity and your contribution, who will reward you with freedom and respect. Do the work. Make a difference.
Every day is a new chance to choose. Choose to change your perspective. Choose to flip the switch in your mind. Turn on the light and stop fretting about with insecurity and doubt. Choose to do your work and be free of distraction. Choose to see the best in someone, or choose to bring out the worst in them. Choose to be a laser beam, with focused intention, or a scattered ray of light that doesn’t do any good.
In the case of personality, most psychologists agree that there are five traits that are essential in how people look at us: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extra-version, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability.
Why is “being good with people” so diminished as a competency?
Here is one way to think about the list of what makes you indispensable: 1. Providing a unique interface between members of the organization 2. Delivering unique creativity 3. Managing a situation or organization of great complexity 4. Leading customers 5. Inspiring staff 6. Providing deep domain knowledge 7. Possessing a unique talent
Delivering unique creativity is hardest of all, because not only do you have to have insight, but you also need to be passionate enough to risk the rejection that delivering a solution can bring. You must ship.
If you’re not the best in the world (the customer’s world) at your unique talent, then it’s not a unique talent,
1. Develop the other attributes that make you a linchpin. 2. Get a lot better at your unique talent.
Humility is our antidote to what’s inevitably not going to go according to plan. Humility permits us to approach a problem with kindness and not arrogance.
The pitfalls: 1. In order to monetize your work, you’ll probably corrupt it, taking out the magic, in search of dollars; and 2. Attention doesn’t always equal significant cash flow.
Understand that there’s a difference between the right answer and the answer you can sell.
Focus on making changes that work down, not up. Interacting with customers and employees is often easier than influencing bosses and investors. Over time, as you create an environment where your insight and generosity pay off, the people above you will notice, and you’ll get more freedom and authority.
create moments where your boss can happily take credit. Once that cycle begins, you can be sure it will continue.
The act of deciding is the act of succeeding.
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
The Gift, by Lewis Hyde
The Gift, by Marcel Mauss
Art Is Work, by Milton Glaser
True and False, by David Mamet
The Lonely Crowd, by David Riesman, with Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney
The American Myth of Success: From Horatio Alger to Norman Vincent Peale, by Richard Weiss
Stone Age Economics, by Marshall Sahlins
Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, by Douglas Rushkoff
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, by Max Weber
The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith There may be a reason to read this entire book, but if there is, it eludes me. The CliffsNotes are sufficient.
Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto
Schooling in Capitalist America, by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Software Project Survival Guide, by Steve McConnell
Zen Habits, by Leo Babauta Leo’s productivity insights are scary in their simplicity and effectiveness.
Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World, by Alex (Sandy) Pentland
Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently, by Gregory Berns
His take is that perception, fear, and networking are the three underlying neurological factors that lead some people to be original thinkers.
How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer
great book, Antonio Damasio’s Descartes’ Error.
Don’t Bite the Hook: Finding Freedom from Anger, Resentment, and Other Destructive Emotions, by Pema Chödrön
Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, by Lama Surya Das
